Glashh
That's the scepticism Glashh had to earn its way past — building the trust, fairness and onboarding a betting chess app needs before anyone risks a single euro.
Product Designer, UX/UI Design, Front-end Dev
Figma · Pug, Sass
Chess & betting
2023 · on hold
Glashh is a chess web app with a twist: players bet money or tokens on their own matches. The startup had a clear idea of the core business, but we audited it together to expand its initial scope.
Product Designer on a small startup team: I led research and feature definition, mapped the user flows, built the prototype and brought the design system into code.
The visual identity was built in-house, but the real work was in the trust and fairness mechanics.
How might we build trust? How might we build engagement?
Realistically, would anyone put money into a random app they'd never used before — especially one brand new to the market? That scepticism was the real starting point.
A freemium model was the only way in.
I designed a "hard coin" backed by real money and a "soft coin" earned just by playing free matches — trust builds before any real money changes hands.
How might we help players avoid being swindled?
Their first match is played against a bot that reads their level, so from the second match on they're playing people of similar skill — which also keeps stronger players engaged from the start instead of grinding through beginners.
The trust-first system — tiered stakes, a bot-calibrated first match, and a freemium wallet — shipped as a working prototype covering the full player loop, from browsing and betting to playing and settling a match. I built the front-end myself, end to end, bringing the whole design system into the codebase.
Glashh has been on hold since 2023, but the trust-first foundation is built and ready to pick back up.
